Understanding that with 2.4 having just been released 2.5 is very much in a kind of "gameplay alpha" status with lots of fluctuations in values likely, I'd like to bring up for discussion a few things that caught my attention with the weapons and damage weights as they currently stand. For organizational reasons I'm going to put each new subtopic in a separate reply. First up: laser weapons.
Laser weapons appear to have been nerfed into uselessness. Accuracy has been drastically reduced (and the non-pistol weapons have picked up an inexplicable penalty to accuracy for burst-fire modes), laser pistol damage has been substantially reduced, and though the Heavy Laser got a slight damage bump it also got more TU-expensive. Worse yet, nothing is vulnerable to it—the Shevaar have no resistances, but the other three species resist at least a third of the expected damage before armor (Ortnoks are guaranteed to take 1 damage per laser pistol hit, and resist ~73% and ~50% respectively for the laser rifle and heavy laser). Armor also has substantial impact.
In 2.4, at least, the implied bargain was "high accuracy, reasonably fast, low damage, stay away from Ortnoks". IMO at least it failed at this by being too effective overall, so a nerfing was needed. Unfortunately, by striking at both accuracy
and damage the pendulum has swung much too far in the other direction—I'm honestly not sure that the weapons would be viable even with 2.4 accuracy, given 2.5 damage and TU use, but as it stands they're a clearly bad bargain.
I'm inclined to say that their accuracy characteristics should be restored to their 2.4 levels, the Heavy Laser should be restored to its 2.4 TU use, and the Laser Pistol and to a lesser extent Laser Rifle should get a damage bump—maybe to 30±5? Or 25±5 and a drop in Ortnok resistance? Actually, dropping all base resistances by 10 could work. Well, actually, let's try a more principled approach by comparing it to some other weapons.
Laser pistols have Spread 1.5, Crouch 1, Range 60, 28 ammo, 10 TU reload cost, are 2x3, and have 2x1 ammo. They deal 20±5 laser_light at a TU/shot of 4/1 or 8/3.
7.62mm (
) pistols have Crouch 1, Range 40, 12 ammo, 6 TU reload cost, are 2x2, and have 1x1 ammo. They deal 30±5 normal_light at 4 TU for Spread 2 and 8 TU for Spread 1.5.
Plasma Pistols have Crouch 1, Range 40, 8 ammo, 15 TU reload cost, are 2x3, and have 1x1 ammo. They deal 50±10 plasma_light at 6 TU for Spread 2.2, 10 TU for Spread 2, and 10 TU for 3 shots at Spread 2.8.
Laser pistols have a 50% range edge, but I'd argue that their inaccuracy makes it largely irrelevant—you can't seriously engage targets in the 41-60 range category with any actual hope of hitting. Therefore, I'm going to focus on their other characteristics.
Per-round damage by alien/armor; damage whose range is constrained by minimum damage has its range given in parentheses:
Taman:
7.62mm: 30/15/(1)±5
Laser: 10/5/(1-5)±5
Plasma: 45/15/(1-5)±10
Ortnok:
7.62mm: 10/(1)/(1)±5
Laser: (1)/(1)/(1)±5
Plasma: 50/20/(1-10)±10
Shevaar:
7.62mm: (1-5)/(1)/(1)±5
Laser: 20/15/10±5
Plasma: 60/30/10±10
Bloodspider:
7.62mm: 10±5
Laser: 10±5
Plasma: 50±10
So in terms of damage it's almost strictly dominated by plasma. In principle it would make up that deficit through superior accuracy and volume of fire (fewer TUs/shot, plus a larger magazine and less expensive reloads), but look at how many more shots need to hit:
(Best case-worst case ranges to kill an uninjured alien with no/light/medium armor; probabilities will weight towards the better end, as the worst case requires larger numbers of extreme results)
Taman:
Laser: 7-26/10-130/20-130
Plasma: 2-3/4-26/20-130
Ortnok:
Laser: 150-190 (all)
Plasma: 3-4/5-19/15-190
Shevaar:
Laser: 5-12/6-16/8-32
Plasma: 2-4/3-8/6-160
Bloodspider:
Laser: 10-30
Plasma: 3-4
So with the notable exception of a Shevaar using Medium Alien Armor, you consistently need at least twice as many hits for a kill, wiping out the speed advantage (though reloading speed recovers a little of this) and magnifying the effects of the reduced accuracy. Although 2.4's 36±6 damage for the laser pistol was excessive, 30±5 or maybe 25±5 with a reduction in Ortnok laser resistance (it'd be nice for it to be possible to deal more than 1 damage to an Ortnok, even if it remains a miserable option) seems reasonable.
An alternative to a straight damage boost could be to make Shevaar more vulnerable to lasers and less to plasma, but given that a laser pistol takes up the entire holster I don't think making it a dedicated anti-Shevaar weapon is reasonable, especially given how much time there is between being able to research laser pistols and when Shevaar make their first appearance.
(Another question this raises is whether 7.62mm pistols are intended to have any role in the game—I understand they're intended to become obsolete, but they do that almost instantly, as soon as the player either researches laser pistols+DF cartridges or obtains and researches plasma pistols, plus maybe a bit to build up a comfortable reserve of plasma pistol ammo. Even just making them 3-square L-shaped in the inventory like the machine pistol would go a long way to making them not quite as much a complete joke.)
~J
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